Then he honored the dictator, the man providing weapons and other support to Iran for use against America in Trump’s stupid war, with a White House ceremony on the South Lawn involving more than 400 military personnel, both national anthems, a military review, and a flyover by a B-2 bomber and four F-22 Raptors, the latter of which kinda scared our “president” as he saluted the Chinese anthem while Xi didn’t.
It was supplication akin to what he’d previously orchestrated for “President” Putin, in Alaska. The “president” of the United States lowered himself before a dictator actively aiding our enemy and another actively attacking our friend. And, because he’s blinded by all-consuming jealousy of President Barack Obama and, in his role as HOTUS (no need to guess what the H stands for), he put on the most lavish state dinner for Xi, having, years ago, blasted BHO for doing the same.
Last week’s column mentioned Trump banning mainstream media from the White House, immediately struck down, on Constitutional grounds, by a Trump-appointed federal judge. Over the weekend, Attorney General Todd Blanche, sworn to defend the Constitution and the rights of American citizens but not, as he does, to excuse Trump’s lawlessness, lied that the ban hadn’t been a ban, and denied that Trump described it as such, which he had. How dutiful are Trump’s appointees, no matter the needs of our country.
Laughably, after the courts reminded him of the Constitution, Trump went on to say, “CNN shouldn’t be allowed into the sacred White House.” Sacred! So sacred does he hold it that he illegally took a wrecking ball to it, intent on desecrating it with a monstrosity, a tastelessly towering, gilded, and, as it turns out, unsafe ballroom. To Trump, nothing is sacred but his own gratification and greed. Certainly not American law or its foundational tenets, or the honorable obligations of his office.
Not laughable is the clearly illegal, self-promoting television ad Trump has been running; illegal because it was paid for by our tax dollars, bannered as such, proudly. But it’s not just about confirming his dictatorial dismissal of American law, which is bad enough. It’s about its chilling content: Walking down a dark hall, scowling like his post-arrest mugshot, he warns, “With you at my side we will demolish the deep state. We will expel the warmongers from our government. We will drive out the globalists. We will cast out the communists, Marxists and fascists. We will throw off the sick political class that hates our country. We will rout the fake news media, and we will liberate America from these villains once and for all.”
That’s exactly that mendacious, undemocratic authoritarianism that animates the straggling still-approvers; but to anyone who actually loves America as aspired to by our founders, it’s sickening. Close your eyes, and you’ll hear Mussolini. Open them, and see a straight-arm-saluting and hateful cult. Watch newly-launched “Trump TV,” managed by the White House and, therefore, paid for by us, and imagine it in Russian, Chinese, or Korean.
What our country has become under Trump isn’t America, and it’s far from certain it retains the will to do the work to make its way back. If many of us consider ourselves separate from what it now is, can the rest of the world also separate America from Trump, believe it to be a one-off malfunction that will, as long as we continue to have free and fair elections, self-correct?
The thing is, “we” elected him. Within our constitutional system, conceived, in large part, to prevent a Trump from descending to power, it happened. For exposing the weakness of a Constitution that presupposes virtuous politicians and reasonably educated citizens, we owe him embittered thanks. But now, with limitless money from an unimaginably wealthy and selfish American oligarchy controlling what people see and hear, who can say it’s reversible? It was the inevitable result of compromised courts, cowardly Congressdwellers, and shamelessly propagandistic, dishonest media. America has let itself and the world down, and may no longer have the means to lift itself back up.
For a sobering view of the worldwide impact of Trumpism, spend a few moments watching this video, from Rufus Gifford, Ambassador to Denmark under presidents Obama and Biden. These links are ignored by many, but this one is worth a click. In it, he analogizes a heartbroken person finding, with great sadness, that their best and most trusted friend is stabbing them in the back.
